I'm in the market for ideally a used 16' Hobie Cat. Sharon and I are looking for something to buzz around the bay in and get over to the beach a little quicker than our kayaks when we feel like it. I'm thinking this would be perfect as much of the water off my property is very shallow until you get out a good ways. So not having a center board is ideal plus being able to sail right up to the beach will be nice as well.

I've been around boats of all types long enough that I can give just about anything a good look over for soft spots and judge it's general shape but since this board is always a surprising wealth of knowledge I thought I'd mention it here. I've sailed on one a few times but never owned a Hobie or any other catamaran for that matter so I'm sure there are some good things to know that are specific to the craft.

Thanks for all comments and suggestions.

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With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.

I went for a walk today around Comox Harhour & saw a whole fleet of these craft out on the water. It was a sailing class & the Cats were being piloted by four 10 to 12 year olds on each one who were obviously having fun in a safe manner under the watchful eye of their instructor in a powered Zodiac. These craft seem to be a great vessel that are fast, safe & well designed.

Hobie 16 is a performance craft. It will submarine and pitchpole regularly if you push it and or don't really know what you're doing. If you want a cat/hobie to get from a to b of that size you might want to consider a hobie getaway. No daggers or centerboard and pretty quick. I've owned many mono's and cats and the getaway is probably the easiest boat to rig, sail and maintain of all of them.

I should have probably added that I can be a bit of an adrenaline junkie at times. Certainly not movie material or anything. Although, I probably would have been worse if I actually had any money growing up. In any case, the performance piece is part of the reason I'm looking at that model.

My wife.... Definitely not so much at first but she does tend to work her way up to thrill seeker over time. It just takes longer. You just won't get her to admit it, but you can see it in her eyes as she eventually gets almost as bad as me. She just has to expand her limits at a much more conservative rate.

A slower, mono hull boat with a picnic basket would probably be the right choice for her in season one. However, she will get bored of that by the end of the year. By season two, she will be exited for the first week, then probably not bother with it for the rest of the summer. By season three, I'll realize I should have bought a more exiting boat and have to go through the whole sell/buy process again.

I've learned from things like Sea kayaking, that it is better to get her gear where she can learn and slowly push her limits as far as she wants to go. Sailing in faster winds is a choice she can make and work up to. She can, and will, easily just choose to not participate on the windy days at first but over time, I will get to watch her smile every time she gets a little more daring. This will sound sappy, but her "I can't believe I'm doing this smile", is by far my favourite.

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With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.

Wow. I think I finally stumped the collective mass of knowledge here. Only one reply with some advice in it.

Well, unless you count ExLab's comment that I should be OK cause 12 year old's can do it. hahah!! Nice Burn! Oh wait, it was me who got burned, Doh!!! Worst is, Both posters are probably right. I see a lot of swimming in my future if I get this thing.

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With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.